[Question:]{.underline} If Adam had not sinned, would we have been born with
sanctifying grace?
[Answer:]{.underline} St. Thomas Aquinas explains that the formal element in original sin is “the privation of original justice, whereby the will was made subject to God” (Ia IIae, 82, 3). This means that what it really and properly consists in is the loss of sanctifying grace, and not the sinful concupiscence and disorders which are the consequence of original sin. Adam sinned as head of the entire human race. Hence, if he had likewise preserved original justice, as head of the entire human race, then he would not have passed on original sin to his descendence, but instead sanctifying grace. Consequently, if Adam had not sinned, we would have been born with sanctifying grace.
Answered by Father Peter Scott, SSPX.